Plot
Story of a wonderful little girl, who happens to be a genius, and her wonderful teacher vs. the worst parents ever and the worst school principal imaginable.
Release Year: 1996
Rating: 6.6/10 (32,702 voted)
Director:
Danny DeVito
Stars: Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Mara Wilson
Storyline A grouchy couple adopt a very sweet girl they name Matilda. Unlike her bratty brother and mean parents, Matilda becomes a very sweet and extremely intelligent girl, who is very keen to go to school and read books. After a while, her parents send her to school with the worst principal in the world, a very sweet teacher, and good friends. While trying to put up with her parents' and principal's cruelty, she starts to unwittingly unleash telekinetic powers, destroying a television and making a salamander fly onto the principal. With enough practice, Matilda starts to learn to control her telekinetic powers and soon using them on her principal so she can drive her away from the school.
Writers: Roald Dahl, Nicholas Kazan
Cast: Mara Wilson
-
Matilda Wormwood
Danny DeVito
-
Harry Wormwood
/
Narrator
Rhea Perlman
-
Zinnia Wormwood
Embeth Davidtz
-
Miss Jennifer 'Jenny' Honey
Pam Ferris
-
Agatha Trunchbull
Paul Reubens
-
FBI Agent Bob
Tracey Walter
-
FBI Agent Bill
Brian Levinson
-
Michael 'Mikey' Wormwood
Jean Speegle Howard
-
Miss Phelps
Sara Magdalin
-
Matilda - 4 Years
R.D. Robb
-
Roy
Gregory R. Goliath
-
Luther
(as Goliath Gregory)
Fred Parnes
-
Waiter
Kiami Davael
-
Lavender
Leor Livneh Hackel
-
Julius Rottwinkle
Taglines:
Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world...
Release Date: 2 August 1996
Filming Locations: 15811 Youngwood Dr, Whittier, California, USA
Box Office Details
Budget: $36,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $8,209,000
(USA)
(4 August 1996)
(1975 Screens)
Gross: $33,084,249
(USA)
(1 December 1996)
Technical Specs
Runtime:|
USA:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
Sadly, Mara Wilson's mother, Suzie Wilson died of breast cancer during filming. Mara pressed on bravely, impressing her adult co-stars. In spite of this, the film was dedicated to her, as seen in the end credits.
Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers):
When Harry is showing Michael how to change the mileage on a car, he says "Watch the speedometer", when in fact, it is the odometer they are looking at.
Quotes: Agatha Trunchbull:
I like a joke as well as the next fat person!
User Review
Utterly Fantastic
Rating: 10/10
This movie is an absolutely wonderful fantasy. I totally loved it.
The dialog is brilliant. The humor is both bold, and subtle. The
characters are archetypal.
Matilda perfectly captures what it is like to be an intelligent person,
trapped in the body of a child, and surrounded by idiots who control
far too much of your life.
The notion that bad people (even adults) deserve to be punished for
their evil ways (even by children) is truly subversive. Any child who
suffered through the countless typical abuses of unthinking, uncaring,
and ignorant parents will truly love this movie. Those same unthinking,
uncaring, and ignorant parents will probably hate this movie, unless
they are wise enough to see the truth behind the fantasy.
Despite the difficulties Matilda faces, like all good fantasies this
movie has a wonderfully happy ending. I wish the same for all.
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